//------------------------------//
// The Riddle that is the Sphinx 
// Story: Tides of the Past 
// by King-Mac-13 
//------------------------------//

Forgotten (a poem by Fine Prose)
\/
Throughout time, and after many years/
Many stories have been told/
With many worlds and ponies/
With many lessons to behold.
I am the story, the lesson, and the prose.
You were once told my tales around the fire.
Tales of legendary ponies and monsters.
Myths and lessons told before the story’s pyre.
Now I am forgotten.
Ponies were quick to forget my lessons.
They forgot how they told the story.
They would change the details, then the ending.
Eventually, they forgot the fireside’s glory.
It was forgotten.
One day, my lessons were told again.
Something happened and I had a new look.
They had taken y tales and written them down.
They had created what they called, a book.
Will I be forgotten?
The book was handed to others and the story spread.
I saw new life where I am I am truly alive.
The book recreated time and again, I continue on.
With this new form, I shall survive.
I am the story. And as a book, I will no longer be forgotten.
-\/-
Twilight looked out of the train window. She and Pinkie Pie had a long trip on the rails to reach the south of Equestria. Pinkie’s ramblings never stopped the whole time. Twilight had gotten used to it after a while, but the other passengers had to keep distance. That is, until Pinkie threw a party and the train car became a party car. That was a few hours ago and now most of the train car was asleep. Twilight looked up toward the moon over the arid locale they approached. She wasn’t sure what to expect, but had to ready for anything.
\/
As Twilight and Pinkie left the train, they looked out over the dry landscape of the border to the Badlands. A small village had popped up when ponies discovered a deposit of gold. However, the old settler ponies were driven off by the high population of monsters in the area. Now the only thing in the area is an old Equestrian Military base that is meant to keep the monsters in check. Pinkie hopped around the area as they trotted toward the base.
Pinkie stopped hopping and walked next to Twilight. “Why are we going to that boring looking, concrete square again?”
Twilight sighed. She knew better than to question Pinkie’s questions. (Yes, that doesn’t make sense, but… Pinkie.) “We’re going there because we received a letter saying that they noticed a strange creature.”
“I thought we were looking for a Sphinx.”
“We are, Pinkie. That’s why we’re here. It’s possible that this is related.”
“Oh! That makes sense!”
“Exactly!”
“I’m sure the author knows where to take us to get to the Sphinx.”
Twilight had to stop a moment. “What?”
“What?”
After a minute of silence, they continued their march to the base. When they arrived, they had to wait for an hour as they were cleared for entry. When they entered, they were met by one of the base’s sergeants.
He saluted as he spoke, “Sorry for the long wait, Princess Twilight. But with changelings roaming the Badlands recently, we can’t be too careful.”
“Changelings?” Twilight’s concern got worse. Changelings don’t make a move unless Chrysalis was involved. “Is it that bad?”
“Not really. They’re easily tracked when you know what to look for. And we’ve had enough time out here to know what to look for.”
Twilight gave a quick cough and had to change the subject. “This creature you spoke of in your letter, where did you see it?”
The sergeant cleared his throat. “Right… One of our soldiers found it in the nearby desert. That’s what he said, anyway…”
“Alright. I’d like to speak with him.”
“I… don’t see that happening.”
“Why not?”
“Well… he has a thing for explosions, nitpicking and taking things too seriously… It was only a matter of time before one of those finally caught up to him. He was sent back to civilization and is currently in a full-body cast.”
“Oh…”
“But, let it never be said that he was bad at his job. We have a full record of his outing, even down to the coordinates.”
“Excellent. We’ll head there immediately.”
“If you’re sure…”
“Yes. We don’t have a lot of time.” Twilight looked around and noticed the empty space to her side. “Where’s Pinkie Pie?”
“Over here!” Pinkie was joking around with a few of soldiers, who were all in a laughing fit. The pink pony hopped back to Twilight and smiled. “What’s the plan?”
\/
Twilight and Pinkie were escorted to the place the injured soldier saw the creature. Once they arrived, they started to search the area. They found nothing for hours on end. Until Pinkie grabbed Twilight and the soldier and pulled them toward a sand dune.
“Is that it?” Pinkie pointed toward a strange creature.
The creature was a bipedal reptile wearing a brown cloak. As it walked, it dragged its tail and covered its tracks. It seemed to be searching the area, as if it had a mission.
The soldier whispered to the two mares, “That’s the creature.”
Pinkie tilted her head to the side a bit. “Two legs and a creature we’ve never seen… you think it’s one of those humans Lyra talks about?”
Twilight sighed. “No. That’s something else.” As she observed the creature, “What is it looking for?”
The creature froze a moment before making a b-line for a nearby cave.
“After it!” They chased it inside and kept pace for most of the chase. After a while, the creature made a break to the side. When the group turned the corner, they found an empty chamber within the cave. “What?!”
They started to look around the cave. Twilight walked passed a certain stone and had to freeze a moment. When she walked back to see, she found a mirror stone. It appeared as a four by six mirror in the wall. Granted, that’s not unheard of. Some of the stones nearby had a similar effect and created a series of reflective surfaces, which Pinkie instantly had fun with.
Twilight looked around the cave. “This doesn’t make any sense.”
The soldier raised an eyebrow, “What doesn’t?”
“This type of stone… it’s not native to this area…” She looked around the cave, “So why is it here?”
The solder trotted up to the stone and placed his hoof on the stone, creating a ripple effect. He instantly retracted his hoof, “Umm… stone doesn’t ripple. Why did this stone ripple?”
Twilight ran back to the larger stone. “What?!” She placed her hoof on the stone and created the same effect. After a moment, she pushed her hoof farther and found the mirror wasn’t solid. “It’s… a portal!?”
Pinkie popped up nearby, “It could just be a door.”
The soldier thought a moment, “Isn’t that still a portal? Just between two rooms?”
“Good point!”
Twilight rolled her eyes. She looked over the mirror stone and her curiosity got the better of her. “It’s likely that the creature from before used this to escape. Pinkie and I will go through and see what we can find. Solder.”
The soldier snapped to attention. “Yes, ma’am!?”
Twilight, still not used to the reactions from the guard, had to clear her throat to recollect herself. “Uh… right. You stay here in case something comes through.”
“Understood, ma’am!”
Twilight turned toward Pinkie, “Ready?”
“Let’s go!” Pinkie jumped through the portal, followed closely by Twilight.
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Twilight and Pinkie found themselves in a solid room without windows. A mirror behind them rippled until it returned to normal. They looked around for a moment, but the room was completely empty. The doorway on the other side of the room was an open portal covered by a cloth curtain. A lizard creature, similar to the one from before, stood in front of the door. This lizard only wore something akin to a kilt and a jeweled necklace.
The creature looked down on the ponies. It sticks out its tongue and focuses on the ponies, one at a time. When he looked over Pinkie, she stuck out her tongue in return which caused the creature to recoil a moment. He hissed and gave a quick… shriek (for lack of a better term). It wasn’t scared; more like it was just a loud, quick yelp.
Another lizard creature walked in from the other room, this one wearing a black robe. This lizard walked up and looked down toward the ponies. “Why are you here?” Its voice was deep, but very reptilian.
Twilight was about to speak, but Pinkie beat her to it, “We followed one of the other lizard guys. We’re looking for a sphinx!”
The robed lizard recoiled slightly in shock. “The Sphinx?”
“Yep!”
The lizard creatures looked to one another before the robed creature spoke, “Follow me.” With that, it walked back through the curtains.
After a moment, and some intimidating persuasion by the first creature, Twilight and Pinkie walked through the curtain. Beyond the curtain was nothing short of the largest, most extensive library Twilight had ever seen. However, she couldn’t enjoy the knowledge as she and Pinkie were escorted to the back of the library. They found a large golden door at the back decorated with etchings of various creatures including gryphons, minotaurs, wolves, ponies, yaks, the lizards and a multitude of other beings. Twilight was on edge. She wasn’t sure what would happen beyond that door. She looked over to Pinkie, and the tension waned when she found Pinkie being her usual self. Twilight couldn’t help but smile. No matter what was beyond that door, she was ready for it.
One of the doors opened and the ponies were shepherded inside. Sitting behind a large, mahogany desk was a large was a giant creature with the body of a lion, eagle wings, and a human face. Her mane was trimmed and she was wearing a pair of reading glasses. As the ponies entered, she was reading over a large book which spanned some 20 feet (about 6 meters). On the desk was a number of objects including a pot of ink labeled ‘Rose Ink’, a small plushy of a black feathered gryphon, and a card with a heart labeled KP.
The robed lizard kneeled down before speaking, “My Lady, mighty Sphinx, you have visitors.”
The Sphinx looked down at the lizard and noticed the ponies. “Is that right?” Her voice was melodic and warming. It would make anypony feel at home, but also feel small and insignificant.
Twilight was shaking, but this time the tension was cut by the Sphinx herself.
“Oh! How lovely!” The Sphinx jumped over the desk and shrunk down to just over twice the size of the average pony. “Welcome to the Great Library!”
Twilight wasn’t sure what to think. “Uh… thank you.”
“How can I help you?”
Twilight cleared her throat. “I’m very sorry to bring this up, and I hope that you won’t take any offense; but we are here to make sure that you won’t harm anypony in Equestria.”
“Oh?” The Sphinx seemed confused, but did not seem offended. “Why would you need to do that?”
“Recently, an old mechanism in Equestria was used, waking the Elementals…”
“Oh! You mean Harmonia!”
“Wait! You know about it?”
The Sphinx smiled. “I do. I wasn’t able to study it, but I know about it. One of my visitors mentioned it and gave me an overview. Beyond that, I don’t know too much. That said, I would love to visit it. I haven’t been out of the library in so long.”
“Um… what?”
“Oh! Right. You said this woke my family. I should go see them.”
“Family?!”
The Sphinx giggled. “We’re not related. Rather, it’s the best description we have as a group. That said…” the Sphinx started to walk out into the library.
As she passed by, a section Twilight’s shadow shot up and grabbed a hair from the Sphinx. When it started to disappear, it couldn’t dissolve. The shadow quickly returned to a normal state, but held that hair with all the magical might it could muster.
“…to answer the next question you were going to ask, I have been awake the whole time. You noticed that you entered through a portal stone, didn’t you?”
“Well, yes.” Twilight followed the Sphinx.
“Right now, we are in a pocket dimension. My own personal location. It connects to countless worlds and it gathers information around them. Within this library is the knowledge of thousands of worlds! Granted, looking at some of it would prove… dangerous.”
“What do you mean?”
“Looking over too much of the information could turn anyone into an insane mad-being. The only one that remained coherent was a hippogryph, Silver-something… Point is, he went off the deep end.”
“Okay… Um… if I could ask you a question…”
“You know, I would let you. But how about a challenge. A scavenger hunt.”
“Scavenger hunt?!”
“Yes. You see, my riddles are so easy to solve these days. So, I give you a list and you find the items in the library. Bring them all to me in three hours and I’ll let you ask your question.” With that, the Sphinx left Twilight and Pinkie alone, a piece of paper falling on the floor in front of them.
Listed on the paper was a series of items: 1 novel by a pony, 2 short stories by a being with the title of Doctor, 5 atlases from 5 worlds, and a book of each of Equestria’s schools of magic.
Twilight looked over the list and was a bit disappointed. She was hoping they would be a series of riddles. This seemed more like a “To Get List,” hardly difficult enough to be called a scavenger hunt. But, she needed to ask her question. So, she had no choice.
\/
After an hour, the novel, one of the short stories and the atlases. She looked over the catalog again in hopes of finding the other short story, being the more difficult task than a book from the magic schools from Equestria (which she knows by heart). “Doctor… doctor… Doctor Zeus? No, that’s a series of short stories. Doctor Harmony? No, that’s a set of sheet music. Doctor Wolf? Psychiatric records… Doctor Who? Wait… smudge. That says Time Turner… Wait. Why does that sound familiar?”
Pinkie Pie popped up from the catalog. “Found one!” After getting the prerequisite ‘shush’ from the surrounding patrons, Pinkie produced a book with a series of short stories; one of which was by a Doctor Coltfield.
“Thanks Pinkie.” Twilight whispered as she added it to the pile. “Now to the magic section!”
They made their way to the magic section and found four ponies in the area. A grey mare with a dark mane and a glass of water, a light green Pegasus looking over a book about ‘the magic of animation,’ and a pair of ponies sitting next to each other (a red coated unicorn stallion with a grey mane and a strange note reading ‘IOU’ on his flank; and a Pegasus mare with a yellow coat and a yellow and black mane). The crowd, no matter how small, meant that the duo had to remain quiet in respect for the rules of the library. Twilight looked to the ponies and wanted to ask something, but she and Pinkie were on a time limit, so thought it best not to.
She was able to find a book from the Canterlot Academy (talking about the use of magic during the early years of Equestria), the Trottingham School (talking about the power of magic with dragons), and one from the Crystal Empire’s previous academic circle from before Sombra (about the power of magic of the Crystal Heart). She was certain she had what she needed, but Pinkie added two more books just in case, The Inquisitor and the Chaos Spirit: War of Order and Light of the Heavens: The Eclipse.
It had only been two hours and they were making their way back to the Sphinx. When they arrived, they placed the items on her desk. “We found them all.”
The Sphinx looked over the pieces and shook her head. “No. You haven’t.”
“What?!”
“You have everything but the final piece completed. You have Artifact Magic, Light Magic, Chaos Magic, Dragon Magic, and Celestial Magic. You also have a book on the Elementals in your possession. You are missing a book on Dark Magic.”
“But… they don’t write books on Dark Magic!”
“Don’t they? If I’m not mistaken, there is one such book on the library shelves. Less than an hour. I’d start looking if I were you.”
Twilight was panicking. She grabbed Pinkie and tried to teleport back to the shelves, to no avail. “What?”
“You can’t use teleportation spells in the library.”
Unbeknownst to the ponies, Twilight’s shadow reacted in shock. A section popped off into a sphere and rolled slightly; but, ultimately, not capable of getting far. A section of Pinkie’s shadow broke off and slithered while wrapped around the sphere, allowing the shadows to move across the ground in secret. When the shadows reached the mirror portal to Equestria, they jumped through and disappeared on contact with the Equestrian world.
Meanwhile, Twilight and Pinkie ran back to the card catalog. Twilight rummaged through the cards, trying to find a book on Dark magic, but she knew it was impossible. There was no book in Equestria about Dark Magic. As she found more and more pieces about Dark Magics from other worlds, she started to become angry. That dumb stipulation about it being from Equestria made it impossible!
“Hey! Twilight!” Pinkie popped up again. “I found one!”
Twilight grabbed the card and looked over the decimal and location. She rushed off without reading the rest. When she arrived, she found a journal labelled D-Q-17 by… Grimoire Maleficarum?!?
Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. She opened the book to make sure its contents were usable. What she found was actually fascinating. Written down was a series of magical experiment notes and new spell types: a spell to instantly write down thoughts, a version of a barrier spell that expands and vaporizes everything in the expanded radius, and a Dark Magic spell to transfer magic from a magic item into a living being. Twilight closed the book and nodded. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but something felt off. She decided to make her way back to the Sphinx.
When she placed the book on the Sphinx’s desk, the Elemental smiled and nodded. “Better. That’s everything. So, you may ask your question.”
“I had a question before all of this. But after this hunt, a new question popped up. Why?”
The Sphinx kept smiling and raised an eyebrow.
“Why ask us for these things specifically?”
“So you noticed? Good. The novel was a simple find. Something to see what you would bring; and you brought Mage’s Hour, a story of a magic wielder facing a magic power they don’t understand. You brought the atlases of your own world and four others from four other worlds, each of which is very similar to your own. You brought me two short stories by Doctors: False Reality and Shadow of the Light. Then you brought me a book from each of the schools of magic from Equestria. But, you forgot Dark Magic. I can read you like a book. Now, you have to read your own book. Take all but the atlases and return to your world. You’ll see what I mean soon enough. Consider it your next test.”
Twilight and Pinkie were escorted back to the mirror portal. Once they returned to the mirror’s room, they had to step back through the mirror. As they left, the robed lizard said, “Come back any time.”
-\/-
K-M-11 (393)
Today was an excellent day! Well… not perfect. I know that much.
I was given a letter. I don’t live here. The mare was the one I met during my meeting with Doctor Time Turner, so she knows my face. Yet for some reason, I was handed a letter for… Rose Luck. I was able to deliver the letter properly thanks to the small size of the town. Granted, when I met her, I was… confused for one thing. She and her coworkers seem to be quick to call out that something is “awful/horrible” while lying on the ground twitching in fear. Makes you wonder. But when she got the letter, she seemed to perk up. I didn’t have time to stick around due to an attack by three of the young locals. Okay, ‘attack’ isn’t the right word, but those three fillies (who I have since learned are named Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo) had a clear curiosity. I love the fact that young ponies are still so willing to learn and experience the world. After that, I made my way to a place called ‘Sugar Cube Corner.’ (Their cupcakes are amazing! By the way.) This town is extremely friendly. Anywhere else, and this would seem concerning. But something about this town just makes you feel at ease. I also walked around and word of my Dark Magic had to have gotten out by now. Yet, while some are concerned, many remain friendly. I like it here. When this is over, I think I might set up a residence here.
Magic Report: I now have all the ingredients for my spell. My Tags have dissipated as a result, but their job is complete. I am now beginning the transfer process. It will take time, but I can wait.
Personal report: My dreams the previous night were filled with visions of Ryuko. Even after all this time, I miss her. That said, I have accepted what happened. I wish I could have changed it, but no one can change the inevitabilities of life. As it stands, I shall continue forward.
-Grimoire Maleficarum